Birdo

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At the risk of deluging you with Heppenstall, I cannot resist posting this line from The Intellectual Part:

“I had never thought highly of Esperanto (my father had once tried to make me learn it, but when I found the word for bird was ‘birdo’ I could no longer take it seriously).”

I wonder if perhaps I should arrange for Blötzmann’s bird psychology diagram to be translated into a birdo psychologyo diagramo.

20 thoughts on “Birdo”

  1. y is no letter in esperanto – could be i or j
    psychology would be psikologio

    birda psikologia diagramo – you have to be observant with the grammer rules.

    -o is for substantive noun
    -a is for adjective
    You will find grammer more interesting if you study esperanto.
    Then you get to understand your own language better and you get a language as a key to other languages.

    I listen to radio from Brazil just now, try
    http://www.ipernity.com/doc/55897/6974599?from=6974599&at=1262459504

  2. Many Esperanto words are recognizable in writing, but are not pronounced as in English.
    The only vowels allowed in Esperanto are a e i o u, pronounced like in Italian. The sound “ir” as in “bird” does not exist.
    A word like “teamo” would be easily recognizable when reading, but absolutely not when listening.
    The word “timo” does not mean “time” but “fright” and is related to “timorous”.
    I think that in “Europanto” words were chosen from all european languages and were written and pronounced as in the original language.
    Unfortunately, this did not work at all. It was even worse than English. The Esperanto solution is the only one working.
    One needs a few weeks to get accustomed to see in writing what is said and have some chance to recognise a word in context.
    Remuŝ

  3. So, if “birdo” is pronounced “beerdo”, how do you say “beard” in Dr L L Zamenhof’s universal tongue? Is it not “beardo”, which sounds the same as the word for bird?

  4. pronounce be-ard, every vowel must be heard
    translate beard = barbo
    funny, in my lexicon I just found “barb” barbed wire
    and that is what beard could be.

  6. I propose an experiment – translate some of Hooting Yard into Esperanto, and then lets see if it has the same kind if zing as the original English version – who knows, it may even be improved in translation. Frank – would you be willing to to partake of this kind of experiment?

    Loyally yours,

    TW

  7. One of the many surprises of bloggery was the discovery of militant esperanto enthusiasts. Any fun-poking at the failed linguistic experiment brings them swarming to one’s site to explain why, like Marxism, it still deserves a ‘proper’ try because it works so well in theory.

  9. Well we mustn’t forget that while there are a handful of extremists, the vast majority of Glosans are moderates just like you and me, who just want to get on with their lives. But surely Dobson has written a pamphlet on Glosans vs Esperantists somewhere?

  10. Indeed he did. I must try to dig it out and transcribe it here. As far as I recall, it centres upon the fact that “Glosa” in Esperanto is “Gloso”, whereas “Esperanto” in Glosa is “Esperanta”. But at least they recognise each other’s existence.

  13. Alas, if only I could explain, Inga.

    (Or, “o, so e explico oo, Ingoo” as I would say in Glosperanto, a language combining Glosa and Esperanto and superior to both, being easier to learn in theory and much more amusing to pronounce in practice.)

  16. >Brit: Glosperanto, a language combining Glosa and Esperanto and superior to both

    May-be, as there are thousands which, according to their authors, are still better.
    While every Esperantist would agree that Esperanto is not the best language in absolute, they tend to think it is quite acceptable as it is.
    There is no best language, even for computers.
    More at http://remush.be/rebuttal/index.html#011
    Remuŝ

  18. > Brit: Any fun-poking at the failed linguistic experiment brings them swarming to one’s site to explain why, like Marxism, it still deserves a ‘proper’ try because it works so well in theory.

    You are right… in theory. Keep not trying, please.

    Remuŝ

  19. “Pippi is childlanguage for BIRD”

    This casts light on the enigmatic Pippy bag (Pippi-bago?) suggesting a bag a child might use to collect birds in…
    I shall now research ‘childlanguage”…
    Learning is a wonderful thing…

    O.S.M.

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